Automated systems for treating dairy livestock are known. For example, robotic milking machines are known. Typically, a milking robot comprises an arm that attaches a milking unit to any type of dairy livestock. Other operations of a milking robot arm may include removing a milking unit from the dairy livestock, placing the milking unit in a housing, etc.
However, known systems and methods suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, the arm of a milking robot travels relatively long distances and covers large spaces. For example, in order to attach a milking unit to the dairy livestock, the arm needs to enter (and exit) the stall containing the livestock. For example, the milk is not milked directly into the main milk-line. For example, a human operator cannot come in close contact with the dairy livestock, due to robot operation. For example, known systems require the assembly of an entire new milking platform or at least require major changes in the existing milking platform, since they cannot be simply included and assembled in any type of existing milking platform. Many of the above detailed drawbacks, as well as others not mentioned, stem from the concept that the animal enters a particular “robotic zone”, in which it is treated, e g, milked, using industrial robotic arms known in the industry, that are fitted to milking and the like. Therefore, in order to construct such a “robotic zone”, the entire milking parlor needs to be rearranged and industrial robotic arm are used.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to develop a system for treating, e.g., milking, animals in a milking parlor by actually introducing the robot into the animal's footprint, rather than introducing the animal into a “robotic zone”. This would allow the use of miniature robotic arms that could move swiftly over short distances, and more importantly, it would allow the use of any type of existing milking parlor, without necessitating cumbersome alterations thereto.